This invention relates to automatic assembly of articles such as electrical components in angular relation on holders such as printed circuit boards.
Large numbers of electronic components have their coaxial or multiple leads mounted by machines which form and insert the free ends of the leads through preformed holes for connection with the circuitry of printed circuit boards. Some of these machines have heads adjustable angularly, manually or by power means, about axes normal to the plane of the boards. In some cases the machines themselves are bodily repositioned each time insertion is to occur, or more commonly a conveyor or cross slide means is provided for X-Y orienting a board with respect to the lead inserting and the lead clinching means. It is also known, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,707 for instance, to provide a rotary circuit board holder which is manually turnable about an axis to enable components to be mounted in a board with different orientation, but not without some risk of injury to an operator's hands as well as inconvenience and possible inaccuracy.
Examples of disclosures pertaining to automatically controlled pantograph positioning of circuit boards on X-Y axes are found, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,727,284 and 3,789,483. Such arrangements ordinarily dispose component bodies when mounted only along one coordinate (i. e. parallel to each other), but may require a 90.degree. (for instance) or other angular shifting of the mounting board relative to an inserter or applicator to fulfill a requirement of right angular or selected disposition and more intensive use of the board surface.